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#13069

popcorn

“this series is very dear to me because it’s the first set of work i made after about 10 years of pretty much doing nothing. up until i was 16, i drew and took photographs constantly. i listened to a lot of sad angry rock music and at the time was really excited by their vulnerability and openness, things that weren’t welcomed in my own family. i filtered my work thru those songs because it felt safer than using my own experiences. feelings that didn’t feel legitimate until very recently.

during a very stressful and crushing trip back to sri lanka and dubai in 2015, i felt stuck in places where i had no room to cry in, or scream, or speak at all. i didn’t know how to talk to people i’ve known my entire life, and they didn’t know how to talk to me. i wandered around a supermarket in colombo and instinctively picked up a black marker, a children’s drawing pad and some tipex and feverishly made the first four pieces. it was the first time in a while i felt understood. i was using a language i had created myself. i mixed the world around me into how horrible i felt, and ended up with something i could read so clearly. full of secrets, but still safe enough to share.”

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